How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight? A Simple Way to Find Out

A common general starting point is eating roughly 500 fewer calories per day than your maintenance level — the number of calories your body burns to stay at your current weight. That’s a rough guideline, not a personalized target, and the number that actually works for you depends on factors a generic formula can’t see.

Trackbie does not provide medical advice. This is general information, not a personalized recommendation — consult a healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet.

Why “500 Fewer Calories” Is Only a Starting Point

The 500-calorie figure comes from a rough rule of thumb that a deficit of about 3,500 calories over time corresponds to roughly a pound of weight change. It’s a reasonable starting estimate, but your actual maintenance calories depend on your body composition, activity level, and metabolism — none of which a generic calculator sees directly. Two people of the same height and weight can have meaningfully different real maintenance levels.

A Better Starting Point Than a Formula

Instead of estimating your maintenance calories from a generic formula and guessing at a deficit, a more reliable approach is looking at what you’re actually eating now and adjusting from there. This is the idea behind Plan My Day: Trackbie looks at your last 7 days of real eating, not a generic estimate, and builds a macro target from that — a starting point grounded in your actual habits rather than a population-average formula.

Signs Your Deficit Might Be Too Aggressive

A deficit that’s too large tends to show up as constant hunger, low energy, or difficulty sticking with it for more than a week or two. If that’s happening, a smaller, more sustainable deficit — even if it means slower progress — is usually more effective long-term than a deficit you can’t maintain.

When to Talk to a Professional

If you have a specific medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or weight loss isn’t happening despite a consistent deficit, that’s a sign to talk to a doctor or registered dietitian rather than adjust the number further on your own.